


let the fate we fight take hold

by thistidalwave



Series: i wanna love now [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Bickering, Gen, Outtakes, Relationship Negotiation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 00:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3228710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thistidalwave/pseuds/thistidalwave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Outtake from <i>tiptoe 'round our dreams</i>. Dex and Nursey try to figure out how to make up for disappointing Chowder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let the fate we fight take hold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blamefincham](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blamefincham/gifts).



Dex feels awful. He can tell that Nursey does too, in the same way he can tell when Nursey is going to do something they did _not_ agree to on the ice. It’s an odd sort of connection, and it’s one that Dex desperately wishes he had nothing to do with when it comes to Nursey. 

To be perfectly clear, Dex does not give a _fuck_ about Derek Nurse’s feelings, and he would absolutely not feel bad about chewing him out during practice today if it hadn’t put that disappointed look on Chowder’s face. There’s something about Chowder when he’s sad that makes Dex feel terrible when he knows it’s (partially) his fault. He and Nursey have an unspoken agreement to avoid fighting in front of Chowder when possible, but that’s easier to think than to do, especially considering they end up fighting whenever they so much as say hello to each other.

They fucked up big this time, though. This isn’t intentionally making the other literally pay for bickering or riling Nursey up by taking the last slice of garlic bread—they’d promised to try this time, and the worst part is that Dex had meant it. He’s pretty sure that Nursey had meant it, too. 

They end up leaving the locker room around the same time and walk toward the dining hall together in silence. They’re almost to the doors when Nursey sighs and says, “We fucked up, dude.”

“Yeah,” Dex agrees.

They don’t talk for the rest of team breakfast. 

-

Dex is sitting on his bed with his laptop mid-afternoon after his last class, ostensibly doing his homework but really just fucking around on the internet, when his phone vibrates with a text. It’s a string of emojis from Chowder that he sent to both Dex and Nursey. Dex stares at it for a good minute; he thinks Chowder must have used every sad looking emoji there is, as if Dex didn’t already want to severely punish himself. 

No apology he tries to type sounds adequate enough, and he’s still trying when he gets Chowder’s second text telling them to meet him at his room at 8 PM on Friday for their get-along shirt time. He erases everything he’d put in the text box. It’s not just his apology, anyway.

He texts Nursey separately instead. _I don’t know how to say sorry to Chowder._

The reply is almost instant. _Me neither. Those emojis were a lot._

Dex doesn’t laugh, but it’s a close thing. _I’d think he was trying to make us upset if I didn’t know him better than that._

 _He’s more wily than he looks,_ Nursey replies. _He knows. I think we need to do something big to make up for this._

 _We already have to do the get along shirt thing,_ Dex texts back, frowning. _What else is there?_

Nursey doesn’t text back for so long that Dex starts getting annoyed. Why suggest doing something if he was going to just ignore Dex asking what he meant? Talk about being an asshole.

Dex is about to text something of that nature when _I don’t know, sleep on it?_ pops up on his screen. 

_Fine,_ Dex texts back, rolling his eyes. 

_Chill, Dex,_ Nursey replies. Dex resists the urge to throw his phone across the room—his roommate probably wouldn’t appreciate that, and Dex can’t afford to break it besides—and texts back _stfu._

Thankfully, he doesn’t get a reply.

-

They don’t have practice Thursday morning, so Dex doesn’t see Nursey at all until he sits down across the table from Dex when he’s eating dinner.

“Hey,” Nursey says.

“Hi,” Dex replies. He concentrates on cutting his chicken up into smaller and smaller pieces instead of looking at Nursey. He’s afraid that if he does, Nursey will have some sort of annoying expression on his face that will just make Dex angry.

Nursey takes the lid off his prepackaged… something. Dex doesn’t know, and he isn’t sure he wants to. “Did you sleep on it?” he asks.

Dex had, in fact, slept on it, and he thinks he dreamed about it, too, because he’d woken up feeling both livid and unspeakably guilty. It’s been, suffice it to say, not the greatest of days. “I didn’t think of anything,” he says, answering the question Nursey had really meant. 

“Me neither,” Nursey says, sighing and stabbing at his food. “I kind of want to just buy him stuff, like, I don’t know, Sharks merch and shit, but that—”

“—is stupid?” Dex cuts in. “Chowder’s not a problem you can throw money at.”

“No, of course he’s fucking not!” Nursey snaps. He visibly takes a deep breath. “That’s what I was going to _say_.”

Dex eats his chicken instead of replying. Nursey follows his example. It’s a few minutes before Dex says, “I think the worst part is that no matter what we do to apologize now, it won’t matter because we’ll just disappoint him again.”

“Yeah,” Nursey agrees immediately. Dex finds it terribly amusing and unfortunate that the only things they ever seem to agree on have to do with Chowder. “Well, what if—”

“We just need— “ Dex starts at the same time. “Sorry, you go ahead.” 

“No, you say your thing,” Nursey objects. 

Dex rolls his eyes. “We just need to stop disappointing him,” he says. “I guess that’s far-fetched, though.”

Nursey shrugs. “That would mean not fighting,” he points out. Dex wants to tell him off for stating the obvious, but he bites his tongue. “We’re not very good at that.”

“Obviously,” Dex can’t help but say. “But in all honesty, have you been trying not to?”

“I was at practice yesterday,” Nursey says defensively.

“Yeah, me too,” Dex says. “But other than that? I admit that I could have shut up sometimes and didn’t.”

“That’s for sure,” Nursey says, and then he winces. “Sorry, I mean, me too. You’re just so—it’s so easy.” 

Dex snorts. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

They go back to eating for a few minutes. Dex is nearly done when Nursey says, “So… the best apology is not doing the thing again, right? So we just try not to fight anymore? For real?”

Dex nods. “I’ll try if you will, dude.” 

“You’re on,” Nursey says, offering his hand. Dex shakes on it. “I still think we need to get Chowder an apology gift or something though.”

Dex shoves the last of his chicken in his mouth and shakes his head. He swallows and then says, “I just finished eating, so, like, I think that’s enough discussion for today, man.”

Nursey sighs. “Okay, fine. Brainstorm and meet back here tomorrow before we have to be at C’s room?” 

“You got it,” Dex agrees.

-

Nursey beats Dex to the dining hall the next day, and the first thing he says when Dex comes up to his table is “I’ve got nothing, dude. Did you think of anything?” 

Dex shakes his head. “What are things Chowder likes?” 

“The Sharks,” Nursey says immediately. “Tiny cute animals, baked goods, that one show that’s on the CW. Being an adorable ray of sunshine.” 

“Yeah,” Dex says, sighing, “that’s about what I’ve got, too.” 

“Probably too late to get Bitty to bake him something, hey?” 

Dex checks the time on his phone. They have an hour and a half, which when you know Bitty, actually seems reasonable, but… “That doesn’t seem like a sorry from us,” Dex points out. “It just leaves us owing Bitty for doing something nice for Chowder.” 

“Yeah, yeah, right,” Nursey says. “I’d have said we could get him a puppy or something, but I don’t think res life would be into that.”

Dex rolls his eyes. “No, and you can’t buy a person something they have to take care of without asking.” 

Nursey huffs. “Fine,” he says. “Do you have any suggestions, or are you just gonna keep on shooting mine down?” 

Dex really has no idea, and it doesn’t help that they’ve left this to the eleventh hour now. He stares around the dining hall, wracking his brain, and then it clicks. “One of the desserts from here?” he suggests. “They’re so stupid expensive that no one ever buys them, but… ”

Nursey’s whole face lights up when he grins. “I’ve definitely seen Chowder eyeing the cupcakes,” he says. 

“Cupcakes it is!” Dex says, smiling carefully back at Nursey. 

They end up arguing about what kind of cupcakes to get, and Dex has to stop himself from yelling mid-sentence. Nursey shuts up as well, and after an extended silence, suggests that they just get every kind. Dex agrees on the basis that Chowder deserves every kind anyway. They split the cost, and thankfully Nursey doesn’t even try to stop Dex.

Cupcakes acquired, they sit at a table and resolutely do not talk until they leave to meet Chowder—early, because there’s only so much they could do on their phones, and the tension had been starting to be suffocating. 

“Okay, so,” Dex says on the walk there, “remember that we’re trying now, okay? Whatever Chowder wants, we’ll just go with it. I don’t want to—”

“To fuck this up?” Nursey says. “Chill, Dex, I don’t want to fuck it up again either.”

Dex sighs. “Maybe stop telling me to chill,” he says. 

“Maybe.” They arrive at Chowder’s door, and Dex nervously shifts the box of cupcakes from one hand to the other. “You ready?” Nursey asks.

“To be stuck with you for the next twenty-four hours?” Dex asks. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” 

“That’s the spirit,” Nursey says.


End file.
